Could Additive Kowbucha Reduce Methane Emissions?

Agriculture is the largest anthropogenic source of this gas, accounting for about 40 per cent, leading innovators to offer new solutions to tackle its bovine source. “You’re seeing much more industry involvement,” director of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre Harry Clark says. Emma Bryce reports on the subject for The Guardian.

New Zealand-based dairy producer Fonterra, for example, is developing a methanogen-targeting feed additive called Kowbucha – a reference to the fermented drink kombucha – to reduce its emissions, which contribute about 20 per cent to New Zealand’s overall footprint.

Clark helms a multimillion-dollar government- and industry-funded methane research division which investigates solutions to bring down New Zealand’s livestock methane emissions.

“We’re now going through a massive process of elimination to try to find better [methanogen-targeting] antibodies,” Clark said. “We’ve nearly doubled this [research] programme in size because we feel it has such potential.”

Original article by Emma Bryce, The Guardian, September 30, 2021.

Photo by Stephen Paterson.